beta blockers

1 September 2008

Taking certain drugs with juice could be dangerous

James Discoveries & Stats, Medications, Tips 3

Do you take your medicine with juice? It might be time to rethink that habit.

Professor David Bailey from the University of Western Ontario specializes in clinical pharmacology. He has been involved in studies about how drugs interact with other things you put in your mouth, like herbal supplements and, of course, juice.

Doctors already caution their patients about taking grapefruit juice with certain medicines. The fear is that the juice will actually enhance the drug – meaning you’ll get more of the drug than you should be getting, possibly causing an overdose.

But the new study had surprising results. When taking an antihistamine with grapefruit juice, only about half of the drug was absorbed! Far from an overdose, this was instead making the drug far less effective.

Bailey, the author of the study, is concerned about other juices that contain similar chemicals. Orange juice and apple juice might have a similar effect – either decreasing the drug absorption or increasing it to dangerous levels.

Some drugs that might be affected include antihistamines (allergy headaches) and beta-blockers (often used for migraine prevention).

My medication? I think I might just stick to water, unless my doctor says otherwise.

See the BBC report Fruit juice ‘could affect drugs’, the University of Western Ontario report Fruit juice restricts drug absorption. via ChronicBabe.com

2 April 2008

Atenolol (Tenormin) for migraine

James Medications 0

Atenolol, sold under the brand name Tenormin, is from a drug class commonly known as beta-blockers. Beta-blockers (beta-adrenergic blocking agents) have a long history of success as migriane preventatives. Although they’re not the first line of attack, they have worked with some patients who have not responded to the more usual migraine medications.

But what about Atenolol? Is it a good option for you?

Tenormin is actually a very common beta blocker. It’s usually used to treat cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension. Each beta-blockers works a little differently, and so they are prescribed to specific patients according to their situation.

Although Tenormin has helped some patients with migraine, it’s far more common to be prescribed Propranolol (Inderal) or metoprolol (Toprol), since right now the stats say they have the best chance of success.

As for beta-blockers themselves, there are common reasons why they might not be used. For example, athletes don’t usually use them for migraine because they are less able to exercise. Also, patients that already have low energy and/or depression are not the best candidates for this class of drugs, due to possible side-effects such as drowsiness, nightmares, depression, impotence, memory problems and sleep disorders.

Tenormin probably won’t be the first migraine drug your doctor prescribes, or even the first preventative or beta-blocker. If you’ve tried it and it hasn’t helped, there are probably other choices out there that have a better chance of success.

Read more details about Tenormin at the MayoClinic. Thanks to Migraine and Other Headaches, The Pill Book, and Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain for much of this information.

10 October 2005

Blood pressure medication

James Discoveries & Stats, Medications 0

There’s a new report in the Oct 11 2005 edition of the journal Circulation about headaches and blood pressure medication. The question is, do drugs that are meant to treat high blood pressure also help alleviate headaches? The answer seems to be yes. But why?

The types of drugs we’re talking about are beta blockers, thiazide diuretics, ACE inhibitors, and angiotensin II receptor antagonists. According to the report, they seem to generally lessen headaches by about a third.

It was once thought that headaches were a result of high blood pressure, but the facts didn’t seem to bear this out. Of course, migraine attacks were thought to be all about blood vessels too, but it’s now believed that migraine originates deep in the chemicals of the brain.

Some of these drugs may sound familiar to a migraineur. Beta blockers, for example, are often used for migraine. It may be that migraineurs were mixed in with the headache patients, and that may have coloured the results. In the end, we really don’t know for sure why these drugs work.

The authors of the report are quick to point out that this is by no means the answer when you have a headache. For one thing, lessening headaches by a third is not really that spectacular. There are many drugs that can do much better, and a simple aspirin or tylenol is probably all you need, if anything. Still, this may be a clue into what causes headaches, or what makes them worse.

Read about the study on blood pressure medication at Drugs.com, or find out more about preventative migraine medication, such as beta-blockers.